No Welker, no Hernandez, no Gronk? No taking it easy

PHILADELPHIA—One by one, over and over, drill after drill, over two practices in two days at another team’s facility, the New England Patriots’ receivers caught balls from Tom Brady. Rookies, youngsters, veterans, newcomers, incumbents, wide receivers, tight ends, Swiss Army Knife-types. Brady kept throwing, somebody in a blue jersey kept catching, a Philadelphia Eagles defender kept getting left behind.

These, then, are the names to remember, for now: Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman, Aaron Dobson, Kenbrell Thompkins, Quentin Sims, Zach Sudfeld and Daniel Fells, to name a few. They all took differing paths to the Patriots, they’re all on the spot to pick up where the absent receivers left off, and they all are in the middle of a crash course in chemistry, with each other and with Brady.

They also are on a mission to render those missing receivers invisible, as irrelevant as the organization is treating them, except Gronkowski. In fact, Amendola was asked, it’s not even worth the effort to mention their names here and now, is it?

“Probably not,’’ Amendola answered, with a squint and a smile.

Amendola has heard the comparisons the most. He arrived as a free agent as essentially a straight swap for Welker, when he escaped to Denver after contract talks broke down.

At 27 and fresh off four seasons in St. Louis, Amendola is already a voice of experience among his receiving mates—along with Edelman, the aforementioned Swiss Army knife. Edelman is the same age and has the same level of experience, but has been a Patriot his whole career and thus knows all about rapid roster turnover.

“You don’t even think about that. In the National Football League, there’s turnaround every year,’’ said Edelman, the Patriots’ leading returning pass-catcher with 21 in a season that ended in early December when he broke his foot.

“That’s all in the past,’’ he added, speaking of the departed receivers. “We’re thinking about right now. Right now is training camp and an opportunity to compete.’’

And right now, the faces are largely unfamiliar.

There are the two draft picks, Dobson in the second round and Josh Boyce in the fourth. Thompkins and Sims are undrafted rookies, as is Sudfeld, one of the swarm competing at tight end, along with returnees Fells, Michael Hoomanawanui and an injured-reserve stash from last season, former Giant Jake Ballard.

Yet if the joint practices with the Eagles in Philadelphia were any indication, they’re already clicking with Brady and with each other. According to a tweet sent by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen, on Tuesday, Brady threw 48 passes overall in drills against Eagles defenders, and completed 44.

It only seemed as if they each went to different players. Draft picks Dobson and Boyce made virtually every play they needed to (at least until Dobson was benched for scuffling with the Eagles’ Cary Williams, a pre-arranged punishment agreed on by both coaches). Thompkins made a strong case for himself with his ability to get open deep.

Brady, of course, was a big reason for the exquisite precision— “Tommy’s Tommy; if you’re in the right area, he’ll hit you,’’ Edelman said. But Brady acknowledged what his mostly-new teammates did to make it look so easy.

“I’m proud of all of those young players for coming in,’’ he said. “We've thrown a lot of stuff at them. I said the other day that it's not like we're backing off because that’s not the way our offense is; we've got to keep putting the pressure on everybody, whether it's Aaron or Josh or KT or Zach Sudfeld. Everyone’s who’s out there is expected to go in there and execute at a pretty high level.’’

So far, so good. “Everybody’s learning off each other and getting better,’’ Amendola said, adding that he’s in a slightly better position than most because “I’ve been in four or five offenses in five years … I can adapt well.

“We’ve got a tight-knit group. We’re coached well, and we’re anxious to get out there on the field and prove it.’’

Good enough to end all questions about who’s not there anymore, though?

“I’ll just say this—there are a lot of great receivers that come through New England,’’ Amendola said, “and we’re all excited to be here as well, and we’re excited to step up this time.’’

Of course, seeing some players makes bringing up the past irresistible. Such is the case with Sudfeld, who’s listed at 6-foot-7 and 260-pounds—very Gronk-like dimensions—and did a great impression of him on a handful of posts and crosses in and around the end zone over the first two days.

“There are so many things I have to improve on. There is so much work I have to do to get to where I want to be,’’ Sudfeld said. “But so far, it’s been very good; I’ve been able to get out here and compete. There’s still a lot of work left to be done.’’

By everybody, including Bill Belichick, who has to figure out who makes the team and where and when they’ll line up. Before taking the field for the first joint practice, he was asked how the new receivers have progressed. “Well, we’ll find out,’’ he answered, with the closest thing you’ll see of a chuckle from him.

“I think it's a hard-working group. They're smart. They're out there every day and they're improving,’’ he continued. “They have a long way to go, a lot of situations that we're just starting to get into —red area, third down, two-minute, combination coverages, different blitzes, sight adjust, those kinds of things—as we get further into camp and preseason.

“Then in the regular season, that's all going to pile up, so we'll see how they all handle that.’’

In their first unofficial test against another opponent, they appeared to handle it very well.